Looked like a real quality player a few years ago however he has fallen away badly.

Not sure where the 6’7” stat comes from but he is nowhere near that.

Listed at 6’2” on the official Hull site and I think that is optimistic.

The main issue with him he is another “middle” rather than a Prop.

We have a pack full of “middles” at the moment apart from Fifita and now Butler who are both out and out props.

He isn’t a signing that improves us in my opinion so I’d be steering clear personally.

The last few days have made me reflect on the Rob Butler deal and whether we are really at such a low point that he’s the best we can hope to recruit or are we naive, seen as fall guys by other clubs and taken for a ride by player agents.

It’s been no secret for months maybe even a year or so that we’ve been looking for some new front rowers yet we apparently can’t find one, none are available etc.

We’ve signed Championship standard props for quite some time and to varying degrees they’ve all come up short, Batty, Hurst, Tangata for example

Then we signed Rob Butler, now like any new signing I’ll give him a chance to show his ability but on the face of it he looks like another bottom of the bargain bucket signing that we’re hoping will work out, we will see.

In the meantime Warrington, where Butler came from have signed not one, not two but FOUR new prop forwards
Thomas Mikaele from Wests Tigers, Gil Dudson and Sam Kasiano from Catalan and Kyle Amor on loan from St Helen’s

Also, Toulouse have found Daniel Alvaro a 28 year old, 114 games in the NRL standard prop who’s made an impressive start in SL

But we’ve been repeatedly told there are no available front rowers out there!

We’ve often moaned about how we seemed to be a dumping ground for Castlefords unwanted players and now it seems we’ve been used by Warrington to offload a player so they can bring in better options.
Equally, are agents lifting our leg a bit by shifting their deadwood (not aimed at any on singular player) onto us and we are naive enough to swallow the gumpf they come out with.

Is it just that we don’t have the budget to take such as Amor on loan or sign an NRL quality prop, if this is the case over such a long period of time why?

You’re not seriously comparing our budget to Warrington ! I know we’re in a hell of a place at the min but there’s no comparison btw them and us . Also why not give Butler a chance .. he’s played one game and did ok ..

toulouse have signed Nathan peats at hooker to go with him

Peats will make a huge difference to them, once he starts combining effectively with Corey Norman, which won’t take long, they’ll be a much smoother attacking unit than we’ve seen so far.

Someone at Toulouse clearly understands what they’re doing regards recruitment and has put the effort in to identify and sign their targets

They’ve signed 4, FOUR prop forwards and we couldn’t find one!
It’s not always down to money either, sometimes it’s timing and having your ear close enough to the ground to know who’s potentially going to become available, we seem to be incapable of identifying anyone other than when an agent tries to push deadwood in our direction. We’ve apparently been looking for a year or so, well whose looking, what are they doing to find players who might join us or are they just waiting for a club to contact us with someone they want to offload.

You need to read the whole post, I’ve clearly stated that I’ll give Butler time to show us what he can do but at the same time he’s not a totally unknown quantity is he and his career so far doesn’t inspire, but as I wrote earlier let’s see.

They know we are weak so are going all out to take our SL place .

We are the club that just can’t say no to Warrington because how many would sign a player like Grix on loan knowing full well he was not going to be fit. It did however allow Warrington to bring in another player.
With regards our finances surely they cannot be worse than Salford but yet they can put together a competitive team. We are basically gambling on our survival with the smallest possible expenditure.

But in the end it does come down to money doesn't it ??? We are prob aware of multiple players available but can't possibly compete with clubs like Warrington (as an example) players will go to the highest bidder/ best prospects etc....We all agree though something has to be done and quickly ,

It gets sickening listening about the clubs finances, the truth is nobody really knows.
If you say something long enough and hint at shortcumings people will repeat it.
Its amazing that so many contributors to the site are finance experts but based on what.
We have a skinflint in charge that will never change his finance direction, not even on the odd occasion.
Next season will be no better either in SL or the championship.

Again explain where the money is to come from.

You make Boris look honest at least occasionally he answers a question.

So AGAIN explain to me where the money Is to come from.

I won’t lose any sleep because you are simply full of it.

So you know personally about the club’s finances so why don’t you enlighten us how bad they are or are you just doing what you have been told but don’t know it to be fact.

Of course the finances are a huge part of who we can recruit but the fact we must recruit isn’t some unknown event that happened and caught us by surprise. For years we’ve been poor judges of talent and poor judges of areas of team strength and weakness, coupled with too much loyalty or a fear of changing certain players.

Here’s the really big factor though, someone at some point made a decision on the source and quality of players we’d look at which has somehow become an unwritten policy which year on year has reduced the teams capacity to compete.

We’ve wasted available money and gambled on players like Gaskell, Brough, Atkins, Tangata, Hirst, J Wood, Hood, Baldwinson, Battye, Tansey, Howarth, Yates, Gibson, Green, Reynolds, A Walker, Kay, Gigot etc.

Some have worked out OK, pick them out yourself it’s easy, but the majority have been a waste of the money they were paid or more accurately we’d have been better off not signing 2 gambles and combining the salary for 1 quality player.

We’ve also seen us stockpiling players for certain positions while totally ignoring areas of the team like Half Backs and props for which we’ve been screaming out for more quality.

Someone mentioned Salford, they have a smaller budget than us but clearly have a different approach to recruitment and crucially have someone who knows what they’re looking for and can identify the talent.

So yes finances count but we’ve been awful at spending what we do have.

That's a good idea you tell me why.
1 we have no money
2 running costs per season. Ground
3 wage bill players and staff
4 MCs and Jms wages
5 money from sponsors
6 gate and season ticket money
7 match day corporate
Do I really have to go on, you have no idea what the finances are.
If the club had made an effort to attract more local support its a fair assumption the finances would have improved.
You Vasty constantly ask pathetic questions, and stupid comments like you put the money. Get a grip and give it a rest you brown nose.

I maybe wrong but doesn’t the fact our final league position impacts the money received.

Come on Luton Dreadnought explain this

Agents will always be banding players names about and touting for a better deal for their player which in turn gives them a better cut ,if the rumours are to be believed and Kasiano was on €250,000 plus well we simply can’t compete on those terms . As far as we all know we may have been offered these players before Warrington but we simply can’t and shouldn’t compete in a bidding war which I feel is what we may have been used for . We have the players to get us out of this hole right here without anyone else coming in ,we’ve proved it this season when they get their heads right they can play good open rugby .we may not be looking at season end play offs but we are far better than we are showing at present and can and should be competitive with the teams in the bottom half of the table . I feel it’s confidence and mentality problems rather than just being physically beaten

What do you know about the clubs finances then?

There aren't that many that they do.

But very soon a loan repayment will kick in, and impact the clubs finances.

I never claimed to know anything about the club’s finances except what I keep reading on here about how bad they are from those that also don’t know.
I guess the loan is the ground, which begs the question if we are in this state now it’s not looking good for the future.

If the club Cannot compete in SL perhaps we should accept the reality that our level is the championship maybe MC and JM already know this.

I don’t accept that!

Things can be done differently, obviously a revamped stadium would help but things have gone a bit silent on that front.
A different strategy regards recruitment to improve the quality of the squad albeit a smaller squad but robust enough to withstand a few injuries.
A more open attitude toward shared ownership via new investors and Directors
Increased activity around sponsorship
And finally the accountants nightmare, a dirty, filthy word amongst their community Marketing

I doubt or at least hope you’re not right about our BoD giving up on SL status but if they have they need to be transparent about it and look to sell their stake to someone before they condemn the club to certain relegation.

Then why bother with doing owt to ground

I don't like the idea of the championship but the club is struggling every year to maintain its super league status so are we a SL club or not.

Players are out of contract this is made aware to all clubs in the final year of their deals by both the RFL and the agents.

It’s not a big secret.

Lists are distributed to clubs regularly through the season too about who is available.

Simply fact is we cannot compete financially with most clubs if they want the player.

It’s nothing to do with identifying them, we sadly have to deal with the scraps we are thrown and try mould them into a team capable of competing or more realistically surviving in SL.

I've come to the same conclusion. 23 years and most of those we've been towards the bottom. We've certainly not progressed on the field despite some relatively good seasons. Our revenue does not support a SL team and sadly that seems to be coming to bite us this season.